Yes, this week’s @BBCExtraGuest is again an anonymous #celebritypundit.

@BBCExtraGuest is an unidentified human. This is the second time – @fleetstreetfox on 1st November was the other.

Bad Thinking And Celebrity Punditry

So, it seems the idea is to throw extremism and #celebritypundits into the pot to “stir things up”. Never mind credibility and sincerity. Promote outrage. Even if you need to dredge up unnamed, anonymous extremists.

And even when they are named, still promote their extremism. Witness how another (yawn) repeat guest @OwenJones84 identifies *himself* by repeating a description of him as a Twitter profile as a “braying jackal” and then the BBC in today’s trailer for Question Time call him a “left wing firebrand”.

Stir it up. Overplay. Outrage. Celebritise.

Here’s the problem: Owen Jones is incredible. Really insightful and knowledgeable. But he, like other bloggers, journos, commentators, columnists and miscellaneous bananas-in-pyjamas, need “the oxygen of publicity” and the “methane of fame”. They need not just to be Pundits, but to be Celebrity Pundits. How to get it: outrage and extremism, scandal, ‘inside story’, subversism and I’m A Celebrity.

[Yes, alright, everyone on Twitter including @markinreading uses outrage, but we are just idiots compared to full-time smart people who should be using perspective, truth and openness and not the same idiottools as we use].

Another Manifesto

So it’s time for another Manifesto (yawn). This time it’s a cry to BBC Question Time: